Maffeo Vegio

Apotheosis of Aeneas

Maffeo Vegio (Latin: Maphaeus Vegius; 1407–1458) was an Italian poet who wrote in Latin; he is regarded by many as the finest Latin poet of the fifteenth century.

Born near Lodi, he studied at the University of Pavia, and went on to write some fifty works of both prose and poetry.

His greatest reputation came as the writer of brief epics, the most famous of which was his continuation of Virgil's Aeneid, known variously as the Supplementum (Supplement) or Aeneidos Liber XIII (Book 13 of the Aeneid). Completed in 1428, this 600-line poem starts immediately after the end of Virgil's epic, and describes Aeneas's marriage to Lavinia and his eventual deification. Its combination of classical learning and piety made it very popular in its day; it was often included in editions of the Aeneid in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. An electronic text can be found at the Latin Library.

Vegio also wrote an epic, Astyanax (1430), on the death of the son of Hector, prince of Troy, and a four-book epic, Vellus Aureum (the Golden Fleece) (1431). During 1436–37 he completed his epic on the life of the Christian Saint Anthony, the Antoniad. Michael C. J. Putnam edited and translated Vegio's Short Epics for the I Tatti Renaissance Library (Harvard University Press).

Vegio flattered his way into the papal court, and was made canon of St. Peter's Basilica in 1443; it was an office he held until his death in 1458.

Some of Vegio's poems were later set as motets by renaissance composers – an example being Huc me sidereo, set by Josquin, Jacobus Vaet, Orlando Di Lasso and the first motet of Adrian Willaert's 1559 Musica Nova collection.

Works

(partial list)

Poems

• Poemata et epigrammata, 1422
• Rusticalia
• De morte Astyanactis, 1430
• Velleris aurei libri quattuor, 1431

Religious texts

• Antoniados sive de vita et laudibus sancti Antonii, 1436–1437
• De perseverantia religionis
• De quattuor hominis novissimis, morte, judicio, inferno et paradiso meditationes
• Vita sancti Bernardi Senensis
• Sanctae Monicae translationis ordo. Item de sanctae Monicae vita et ejus officium proprium

Works about ethics

• Disceptatio inter solem, terram, et aurum.
• Dialogus Veritatis et Philalethis.
• Palinurus sive de felicitate et miseria, 1445.

Historical works

• De rebus antiquis memorabilibus Basilicae sancti Petri Romae, 1455–1457.

Works about law

• Vocabula ex iure civili excerpta (in Latin). Vicenza: Filippo Albino. 1477.

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Maffeo Vegio — (MAPHEUS VEGIUS.)

Churchman, humanist, poet, and educator, b. at Lodi, Italy, 1406; d. at Rome, 1458. The details of his life are gathered chiefly from his writings. Born of distinguished parents, his mother being of the house of Lauteria, Vegio passed his early youth at Lodi and Milan, where he completed his elementary studies under capable teachers. One of them, a great admirer of St. Bernardine of Siena, often took his pupils to hear the sermons of the saint of whom Vegio was later to be the biographer. At his father's direction Vegio undertook the study of philosophy in the University of Pavia, changing later to jurisprudence, and, finally, to letters, to which his tastes had always inclined him. He was passionately devoted to the ancient Latin poets and especially to Virgil. He produced his first volume of poems when sixteen years of age. For about ten years Vegio taught poetry and jurisprudence at the University of Pavia. He became an enthusiastic promoter of the revival of letters. Pope Eugenius IV appointed him Secretary of Papal Briefs, and later Apostolic Datary and a canon of St. Peter's. Vespasiano speaks of him at this time as a secular priest, but the date of his ordination is not known. In the service of the Church, Vegio's studies turned more to the Fathers and sacred sciences than to the classics, to St. Augustine instead of Virgil. Chiefly through his devotion to Augustine, Vegio was attracted to the Augustinians, and joined the order. He was buried in the Chapel of St. Monica, which he had caused to be erected in the Church of St. Augustine, Rome.

Vegio's poetical works are as follows: "Poemata et epigrammata", written about 1422; "De morte Astyanactis", on the death of Hector's son and the grief of Andromache (Cagli, 1475); "Velleris aurei", six books on the quest of the Golden Fleece (Cologne, 1589); "In supplementum Æneidos", which Vegio added to Virgil's "Æneid" to describe the destiny of Æneas, and which became the basis of his fame among later humanists (Paris, 1507); "Antoniados, sive de vita et laudibus S. Antonii" (Deventer, 1490). His prose works are: "De perseverantia religionis" (Paris, 1511); "De quattuor hominis novissimis, morte, judicio, inferno et paradiso meditationes" (Paris, 1511); "Vita Sancti Bernardi Senensis" in "Acta SS.", May, V, 117; "Sanctae Monicae translationis ordo. Item de S. Monicae vita et ejus officium proprium", unedited: "Declamatio seu disputatio inter solem, terram, et aurum, audiente Deo et homine assistente", allegorical dialogue (Milan, 1497); "Philalethes, seu veritas invisa exulans", allegorical dialogue addressed to his brother Eustachius (Brescia, 1496); "De felicitate et miseria" (Milan, 1497); "Liber de significatione verborum in jure civili" (Vicenza, 1477), not extant; "de rebus antiquis memorabilibus Basilicae S. Petri Romae", valuable archaeological study, in four books, of St. Peter's Rome, in "Acta SS.", June, VII, 52; "De educatione liberorum et eorum claris moribus", a treatise, in six books, on the education of children and their moral foundation. The first three treat of the duties of parents and teachers in education; the last three of the duties of the young to God, to their fellow-men, and themselves, of the several virtues, good manners, the use of time, etc. It is his most important work, and was for a long time attributed to Filelfo. It has the distinction of being the most Christian in spirit of all the humanistic educational treatises. It approves the study of pagan literature only in conjunction with sacred learning, the study of the Scriptures and the Fathers, makes provision for the education of girls, and considers the formation of a sound moral and Christian character to be the supreme end of education. Many editions of the work have appeared, the latest at Tournai, 1854 (Fr. tr., 1513; Ger. tr. 1856).

KOPP, Maffeus Vegius Erziehungslehre in Bib. kat. Pad., II (Freiburg, 1889); KOHLER, Padagogik des Marpheus Vegius (Gmund, 1856); TIRABOSCHI, Storia della letteratura italiana, VI; VESPASIANO DA BISTICCI, Vite... (Bologna, 1893).

External links

• Maffeo Vegio Catholic Encyclopedia
• Philalethes From the Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress
• (SPC) MSS BH 100 COCH Volume of works by Nicole Oresme, Maffeo Vegio, and Jordanus von Osnabrück at OPenn